CRUEL thugs dumped a rabbit in a wheelie bin outside a Merseyside house.Shocked workmen found the terrified animal after lifting the lid on the bin outside the property in Birkenhead yesterday morning.

Wirral Partnership Homes glaziers Paul Spereall, 51, and Paul Harvey, 21, were finishing a job on Compton Road when a last-minute tidy-up uncovered the white, beige and black rabbit. The green wheelie bin, for non-recyclable rubbish, was due to be collected on Friday.

The male rabbit was dehydrated after its ordeal but is otherwise healthy.

Mr Spereall said: “We’d done some work on the outside of the windows and while Paul was finishing off I picked up some rubbish.

“The lady who owns the house keeps her bins at the front so I went to put it in the wheelie bin.

“I opened it and the next thing I knew there was a rabbit nearly jumping out of the bin at me – it frightened the life out of me.

“We asked the lady in the house if it was her rabbit but she said no.”

The caring pair took the startled rabbit back to their base in Birkenhead before calling the RSPCA.

Mr Spereall said: “I hope it wasn’t dumped in there but I can’t think of another explanation, unless someone saw it on the main road late at night and put it there thinking the owner would find it.

“The bin was about half full and the rabbit was on the top. It’s lucky to be alive – if it had dug its way down I wouldn’t have seen it.”

In August, there was outrage when cctv cameras caught a woman throwing Lola the tabby cat into a wheelie bin in Coventry.

Former bank worker Mary Bale became an international hate figure and faced death threats after the footage emerged. She was fined £250 and banned from keeping animals for five years after being prosecuted by the RSPCA.

Wirral Partnership Homes administration officer Hazel Oliver, who cared for the rabbit yesterday, said: “It did make us think of the cat in the wheelie bin story and hopefully this will shame whoever did it.

“He’s a lovely lop ear rabbit and is quite friendly, considering what happened. He’s probably a bit skinnier than he should be but seems healthy.

“He seems fine now but he was drinking all day so he must have been in there for quite a while.”

The Wirral and Chester branch of the RSPCA has dealt with several cases of animals – particularly cats – being dumped in wheelie bins.

Earlier this year kittens were taken to the charity’s centre in Cross Lane, Wallasey, after being found in a skip.